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UK Solar Moving Forward, Could Double In 2013

The UK’s Solarcentury is about to complete construction of 70 megawatts (MW) of solar power projects, 38 MW of which have been completed in the past 6 months. The entire 70 MW are scheduled for completion by the end of this month (March 2013).

“To date, the company has built 12 utility-scale solar parks and is still keen to maintain operating as a contractor,” the company noted in a press release about all this.

“After the 70 MWp is completed, we aim to keep up the pace with an additional 100MWp this year,” said Solarcentury CEO Frans van den Heuvel.

This is all just to point out that, while the UK went through a turbulent year of premature feed-in tariff cuts last year, solar power is still growing strong there. I’m sure there are many other solar developers who have a similar story to tell.

Solarcentury, formed in 1998, is a clear solar leader in the UK. Most of the projects mentioned above are utility-scale projects.

Overall, Trina Solar has postulated that the UK could double its solar power capacity in 2013, adding another 2 gigawatts (GW) or so of solar power.

“Applications until the official deadline on January 15 indicate a total of between 800MW and 1GW to be installed across solar farm sites during the first quarter as people look to benefit from the peak Renewable Obligation Certificate level before it is lowered on 1 April,” sales director Richard Rushin recently said. “But we also expect the reduced rate of 1.6 for ground-based arrays will enable expansion of the large-scale segment to continue through the rest of the year.”

Going on: “What the industry has managed to achieve in the UK is a sustainable model for future growth. We are now very well placed to achieve the 20Gw of total installed solar PV capacity that DECC has indicated is technically feasible by 2020.”

Have a UK solar project pipeline or project worth boasting about? Drop us a note in the comments! (Heck, for that matter, drop us a not about such big news anywhere in the world.)

About the Author

Zachary Shahan is tryin' to help society help itself (and other species), one letter at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director and chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity; or as president of Important Media. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media: ZacharyShahan.com.

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